


Endgame 1.1

by wouldyouknowmore



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Endgame Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-10 00:22:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18649123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wouldyouknowmore/pseuds/wouldyouknowmore
Summary: Endgame as it should have gone down (according to me at least).Thor did not have a plan when he’d decided to bring Rocket this way. He’d only hoped for one last look, something to cling to instead of the final memory of his brother lifeless in his arms, but now that he’s here, he can’t just walk away...





	Endgame 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so this isn’t strictly fic, at least not up to my usual standards. But the full-fledged fic isn’t going to get written as soon as I would like for it to, if ever, and I really wanted to get it out. So here, have a reeeeeally detailed summary/halfass fic hybrid instead. :’’’)

 

 

Everything is the same at the start, aside from the fact that Thor hasn’t given up. He wants to so desperately some days, but instead, once what’s left of his people have been resettled in Norway, he goes back to the Avengers compound and asks how he can be of service. Natasha sends him on assignments around the world, quick heavy lifting jobs, helping what’s left of Earth rebuild, that sort of thing, until he reminds her that he can be anywhere in the galaxy in a matter of minutes, and it wouldn’t be such a terrible thing for him to travel a bit farther away sometimes.

 

“I thought you would want to stay close to New Asgard,” Natasha says. It’s all he has left, after all. And it’s a rational thing for her to think.

 

But the truth is that every moment he spends there only reminds him of everything he’s lost, everything that happened because of his actions and his mistakes. He can’t be there with his people without thinking of who _isn’t_ there, he can’t see what little he has without remembering how he’d nearly had everything he ever wanted. How close he’d come right there at the end, before Thanos had arrived...

 

So he spends more time away than he does at home, throwing himself into his work, traveling farther and longer every time, sometimes via spaceship instead of Bifrost just to waste time. His hair and his bear grow a bit ragged as the years go by, but he can’t be bothered to care. When he’s home, settling a few petty squabbles (usually between Korg and the Midgardian neighbors) only distracts him for so long, and then he’s off again.

 

He’s halfway across the galaxy five years after the snap when Natasha calls him. She hardly gets the words out (“Something’s happened, and we might have a chance to fix this,”) before summons the Bifrost, and is demanding answers before his feet even touch the floor of the lab once he arrives.

 

But then they tell him that they only mean to reverse the snap, and he can’t understand that. They could have whatever they wanted, and all they mean to do is double the number of people in the universe, bring them back to a future they don’t know? He protests, uses this as an argument, and though no one brings it up, he can tell by the looks on Steve and Natasha’s faces that they know this is far more personal than he’s said.

 

But when no one wants to listen to reason, he brings it up himself. He’s lost more than anyone, he reminds them, and who’s made this plan? Stark. The man who’s gained more than anyone in this new shitty world that they’re all just trying to survive in. Why should they listen to him?

 

But then he realizes that the rest of them are content with it. They’ll have the ones they lost returned to them—of course they’re content. He’s the only one who won’t be getting what he needs to go on from this. But even without, they might have moved on anyway, given enough time. Not Thor. He isn’t mortal, and neither is his grief. And eventually, he gives in and agrees to help. He has the best chance of obtaining the aether, and so he must.

 

Thor and Rocket sneak in through the dungeons. It wasn’t really necessary to do so, but Rocket doesn’t question his choice. Why should he?

 

It’s for the best though. Thor isn’t sure he could give a straight answer anyway. It’s not as though he means to do anything in particular, but as they walk past the rows of cells, his heart starts pounding a little harder and harder—and there he is, laid back on his bed, bored and petulant and beautifully whole.

 

“Brother,” Thor says before he can stop himself. Rocket pauses, already halfway up the steps, asks what he’s doing, but Thor pays him no mind.

 

Loki doesn’t bother to look up, just keeps tossing his cup in the air over and over, uncaring. For a moment, Thor wonders if the Pym particles have worked as he was told they would. Can Loki even hear him? But then he speaks up.

 

“After all this time, and now you come to visit me,” Loki says to the ceiling. “Why? Have you come to gloat? To—”

 

“Loki,” Thor interrupts, helpless. He’d nearly forgotten the sound of his voice. He’d also forgotten the rift between them that still existed at this point in time, and the acid in Loki’s tone hurts, but it isn’t enough to dull his joy or his heartache.

 

Loki does look up then, though. He can hear it in Thor’s voice.

 

“Thor, what the hell,” Rocket pipes up, and Loki glances over, takes him in without a word, and looks back to Thor. This is not the brother he knows. For one thing, he’s staring at Loki like he’s the center of the universe (and how Loki has longed for that for centuries). This is not the Thor who’d just brought him home in chains and a muzzle. This Thor looks as though he’s been through the fires of Muspelheim and back.

 

“You’ve seen better days,” Loki says, cautious.

 

Thor gives him a miserable laugh. “The greatest understatement of my life, brother.”

 

Thor did not have a plan when he’d decided to bring Rocket this way. He’d only hoped for one last look, something to cling to instead of the final memory of his brother lifeless in his arms, but now that he’s here, he can’t just walk away... But what else can he do? If he tells Loki anything, will that change his future? Can he spare his life somehow in his offshoot of reality?

 

Then he remembers how Barton had returned from his test trip through time, holding onto his child’s toy like a lifeline.

 

If Thor can bring the aether back, why couldn’t he bring back a person?

 

“We got a job to do here, buddy,” Rocket insists, and Loki eyes him curiously.

 

Thor’s mind is still racing, though. It could have untold consequences for the future—but then this Loki’s future is not Thor’s present, is it? But this Loki despises him, and is only concerned with his own wellbeing. If he brought him back, he would be putting him in the middle of all six infinity stones and the people who helped put him in this cell. It would undoubtedly be a disaster.

 

“What sort of job might that be,” Loki asks, looking him in the eyes, and adds, “... brother?”

 

And Thor makes his decision. If everyone else can get their own loved ones back, surely he’s allowed just one for making that happen.

 

He picks up the cuffs he’d pocketed all those years ago and sprung on an unsuspecting Loki during their jailbreak. Loki’s eyes narrow, and there’s the slightest hint of a smirk on his face... Thor knows that he’s already planning five steps ahead, has his escape route all lined up, ready to use Thor’s obvious distress and sentiment against him and make his getaway. He’ll just have to be prepared for that. He’s done it before. He can do it again.

 

And this time, he won’t allow Loki to nearly kill himself before he makes his feelings plain. _All_ of them, including the ones he’d never had the chance to share back on the Statesman, before Thanos.

 

Thor ignores Rocket’s protests, collects Loki, collects the aether (Loki’s eyes grow wide when he sees it—“What _have_ you gotten yourself into?”), and prepares to return... and then thinks that if this reality can do without a Loki, it can also do without a Mjolnir. She returns to his hand without a fuss, and it’s exhilarating after all this time.

 

“Okay, _that_ could be helpful, sure,” Rocket says, “but this guy? I don’t get it.”

 

Thor tells him that Loki knows the infinity stones better than anyone they’ve got. He’ll be useful, and Thor can always return him later if need be (which feels like a lie).

 

“Look, pal, even if I was inclined to agree with you about that—which I am _not_ —I hate to break it to ya, but you ain’t getting him back without a suit.”

 

Thor has already considered this.

 

“If he were human or rabbit, perhaps that would be true.”

 

“What do you mean,” Loki starts, and it is such a sincere pleasure for Thor to give him a little grin.

 

“Best hold your breath, brother.”

 

While Loki survives his suitless shrinking and trip through the quantum realm and time itself, he does not arrive in mint condition, and is temporarily incapacitated. Once Thor is sure he’ll be fine, he’s honestly a little bit grateful that Loki arrived unconscious, because the team’s reaction to seeing him is not a positive one, and he can only imagine how Loki would fuel that particular fire.

 

But their anger with Thor is short lived and quickly dismissed, because Natasha returns alone, and they’re more focused on mourning Barton than berating Thor.

 

Loki is cuffed to his bed in the infirmary, and Thor keeps an eye on him until he wakes later that day. Loki does not wake in a good mood.

 

He’s pissed at Thor, he’s pissed about almost dying, he’s pissed about New York, and pissed about the fact that Thor’s brought him here to help _these_ people. It’s almost laughable. But Thor tells him that he’s missed out on quite a lot in the meantime, and he may change his opinion once he hears it all.

 

“I could tell you everything,” Thor says, “but why should you believe me?”

 

“Why indeed.”

 

“Or you could simply pluck the truth from my head and see for yourself.”

 

Loki is taken aback. He’d learned that trick from the Maw during his time with the Black Order. Thor couldn’t possibly know that he was capable of such a thing.

 

“What makes you think I could?”

 

“You will do it to a good friend in a few years. A Valkyrie.”

 

“I thought they all died gruesome deaths.”

 

“All but one. She watches over what’s left of our people on Midgard now.”

 

“Your people,” Loki says, glaring.

 

“If you say so.”

 

The cuffs dampen Loki’s magic, so Thor removes them.

 

Loki immediately conjures a dagger and stabs him.

 

“Even for you, brother, that was idiotic,” he says. But he’s still tempted, so while Thor is crumpled up in the floor, groaning, he reaches down and grabs his face.

 

Thor sees it all at the same time as Loki. Frigga’s funeral, Loki dying in his arms on Svartalfheim, Thor’s return to Asgard and Odin’s death and Hela and Sakaar and the destruction of their home... “I’m here,” and the hug that followed, then Loki’s death at Thanos’s hand... Thor clinging to him as the ship exploded around them, uncaring... Thor killing Thanos but still having to live with his grief for years—

 

Loki falls back, breathing hard, and Thor can feel the tears on his own face. They stare at each other for a good long moment, and finally, Loki stands up and walks out without a word.

 

Natasha comes in, says she heard a noise, and once the security system confirms that Loki is still in the building, she helps patch Thor up. Thor doesn’t worry about him just yet. He’s grown patient after all this time. He can wait.

 

Once they all meet to discuss what to do next, and Loki hears what they have in mind, though, he says that they’re mad to think that any one of them could handle all that power, use the stones effectively, and survive it. But Banner says that really, all they’re concerned with is the using-them part. They’ll accept whatever consequences as long as they can manage to reverse the snap.

 

Loki has the same opinion of that as Thor had, and wants to know why they don’t take it further than that, but once they make it clear that this is what they’re going to do, nothing more, Loki says, “Fine then. Go ahead and kill yourselves for a consolation prize.” He also confirms that it’s Banner who has the best chance.

 

Thanos arrives right after the snap, and all hell breaks loose. Thor and Loki get separated in the attack, but Thor knows that Loki can handle himself, and the sight of Thanos sitting there, just waiting, makes his blood boil.

 

In the meantime, Loki has fallen through the rubble but is unhurt... but their makeshift gauntlet has landed in his lap, and he’s all alone. For a moment at least, and then Nebula finds him.

 

“I know you,” she says to him, and then, “We’re taking that back to my father.”

 

“Lead on,” he replies, seeing his opportunity.

 

Up top, the fight has paused for a moment while Thor and Steve and Stark catch their breath, and then everyone freezes when they see Nebula strolling up with the gauntlet and Loki behind her. The look that Stark gives Thor says quite a lot without him saying a word, but Thor just holds his breath and waits to see if he’s doomed everyone.

 

Before Nebula hands it over, Loki steps up in front of her and tells Thanos that it was him who secured his prize. He may have failed the first go around, but surely it was worth the wait to have all of the stones hand delivered instead. He then pledges his “undying fidelity,” and Thor can see the dagger he’s conjured behind his back.

 

He shouts, “NO,” as loud as he can, but it’s too late—

 

Thanos reaches out to catch Loki around the throat as he makes his move—and Loki vanishes, along with Nebula and the gauntlet.

 

“Did you really think I’d be that idiotic,” the real Loki says, standing off to the side, already wearing the gauntlet. Its power is surging through him, and Thor can see him struggling, fighting to keep control, and he knows that if he uses it, it could kill him. But he doesn’t know how to stop him from here, and he’s lifting his hand...

 

At that moment, all of the portals open up, and a sudden blast blindsides Loki and knocks the gauntlet right off his hand. It’s Strange (“I don’t think so,” he tells Loki), and Thor doesn’t know whether to kill him or thank him for saving Loki’s life. Loki seems to be more sure of what he’d like to do, and luckily for Strange, his cloak pulls him out of the way just in time.

 

“I was going to _stop_ him, you second-rate—”

 

The fight continues, the gauntlet changes hands several times, and Thor is heartened to see Loki get in a few good blows, fighting alongside the rest of the Avengers. But it ends with Stark sacrificing himself, and then there is quite a lot of work to be done after the fact.

 

Steve is tasked with taking all the stones back where they belong, but during that discussion, Loki speaks up.

 

“Thor can take the aether back,” he says.

 

Thor doesn’t understand, so Loki gives him a long, unreadable look.

 

“You can take it back when you take _me_ back.”

 

The meeting adjourns without Thor noticing. He’s too busy staring at Loki, trying to come to terms with this. But he knows that Loki is right. He doesn’t belong here, and his reality will suffer without him.

 

Before they go, they find a quiet corner, and Loki asks him some questions about what he’d seen in Thor’s memories, including the moment they had stood at the window the Statesman, talking about going back to Earth. Not about their conversation, though. Loki asks what Thor was working himself up to, what he was so nervous about, what he was planning to say before Thanos arrived.

 

“I think you know,” Thor says.

 

“Yes. But perhaps I’d like to hear it anyway.”

 

So Thor tells him how much he loves him and has always loved him, after all this time, and even though this isn’t the same Loki he meant to say it to, it feels like enough, especially when Loki hesitantly lets Thor kiss him... and then stops being so hesitant.

 

“I just have one more question, because I’m not sure you’re remembering a few things correctly,” Loki says when they part. “‘Little blue baby icicle?’”

 

Thor laughs, even though it hurts, and kisses him again.

 

Thor allows Loki to enter the coordinates for their return trip. He’s too exhausted and heartbroken to insist upon doing it himself. But when they arrive, they are not in the lower levels as Thor might have expected. It’s night, and they’re on the balcony of Loki’s chambers instead.

 

“When is this?” Thor asks.

 

“The night before you took me out of my cell. We have several hours left to us.”

 

A quick magical dusting is needed, since no one’s been in here since Loki fell from the Bifrost, but the moment it meets Loki’s standard of cleanliness, Thor is in his space, kissing him, walking him backward toward the bed. Loki doesn’t just allow it either. He vanishes their clothing with a wave of his hand, and for the rest of the night, they don’t think about how little time they have left or what they still have to face when this is over.

 

In the morning, Thor regretfully leaves Mjolnir on the balcony, allows Loki to disguise them both, and lets the aether resume its grip on Jane while she sleeps. But locking Loki back up in his cell is even harder, and their goodbyes are long and reluctant.

 

But then finally, he returns to his own timeline, heartbroken and alone. He stands there in the sun, thinking about the night before, wishing he’d taken something out of Loki’s chambers, and then, someone speaks up behind him.

 

“It took a bit longer than I anticipated, but did I not promise you, brother?”

 

It’s Loki. _His_ Loki, standing there.

 

“How,” is all Thor can manage to get out, and Loki steps a little closer.

 

“I had help. Coming back from the dead is difficult, you know. But it just took some bending of space and reality, and a Loki with a little insider information. He was very smug about that, may I just say.”

 

Loki starts to say more, but Thor’s had quite enough talking at this point. Loki doesn’t complain when he shuts him up with a kiss, however.

 

 

 


End file.
